Do like mermaids as much as I do? Sultry dancers, princesses, deep sea fishing?

Drowning Mermaids opens from the perspective of ship Captain Trevain. In his thirty years on the boat he’s made millions capturing seafood off the coast of Alaska. He’s never lost a crewmate…until now.  While blowing off steam with his crew at a strip club, a dancer captures his imagination.

Aazuria is a mermaid princess living on land with her sisters. They got her the stripping job as a way to fund new weapons for her people against a looming enemy… Things are happening in the ocean as more mysterious deaths occur, including those close to Trevain.

 Trevain, aged but gentlemanly, offers Aazuria and her sisters a place to stay in his mansion. For the mermaids the offer is too good to be true. The consequences took me completely by surprise.

If there is anything that captures my attention, it’s mermaids. I found this book to be engaging, intelligent and well crafted. The author Nadia Scrieva has a BA in Anthropology and English. It shows. Plot, pacing and editing are all well done. Interesting anthropological tidbits are sprinkled in. At first I became confused with the characters as there are a number of relatives. However, as I read I found them all to be unique, and tied together through the story. 

I would recommend this book to a friend! As a writer about mermaids I think Scrieva’s world is well thought out and the book well-written. There were a few moments towards the end that I skimmed because the dialogue or thought-trail seemed to monologue. The action scenes could have been a little longer and more exciting, but I enjoyed what she wrote. I also appreciate the quick, nicely packed read! I’d like to read the next in the Sacred Breath series.

Drowning Mermaids (Sacred Breath Series)
Nadia Scrieva’s website

“You could tell a man anything, darling. Anything at all. Tell him about the secrets which make us unique–our biological faculties. Tell him about our rich heritage; tell him about our beautiful home and how it’s unlike anything else on earth. Tell him about your years of captivity, about how long and hard you’ve dreamed of this very moment when you could be in the company of a kind stranger and tell him all this. He will very likely respond with ‘Och, that’s funny dear! Now let me see your titties.'” Sionna, pg 28.

Received Book for Free as limited offer on Amazon 

Margaret Atwood is famous for her feminist dystopia The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as other best selling titles such Year of The Flood and Oryx and Crake. Her short title I’m Starved for You will satisfy your cravings for her trademark twists, her visions of dark futures based on the seeds of today, and passions that refuse to be subdued by government restrictions.

It’s a short read–less than forty pages. Published by Byliner Inc. the title is intended to be read at a single sitting. I rate this one as four stars because it’s an interesting quick read, but by its nature it can’t hope to compete with Atwood’s more lengthy works. This one probably took her a week or two to write, and the prose has the spontaneity of words she didn’t edit much from the original drafts. It’s organic yet layered. The thing that most bothered me, honestly, was that the type wasn’t centered throughout the page. As I said the prose read as spontaneous, but the lack of center made it feel too slapped together for its price tag of $2.99.

The story explores the lives of two residents of a planned community. In order to cope with the chaos massive unemployment has created, a new town offers jobs to all. Half of the residents are prisoners and the other half are the prison guards. And the next month they swap–everything, positions, houses, scooters. Things are hunky dory until Stan finds a provocative letter from one lover to another under his refrigerator. No longer satisfied with the boring sex he’s been having with his wife, his imagination is captured. Ah, but there’s a twist….

I’m not telling, you’ll have to read it for yourself!

See it on Amazon

Margaret Atwood’s Website

Review of the Sequel “Choke Collar”

Previous cover

 

This book was purchased for review.

Once upon a time there was a powerful magician fated to unite the world of Ourea in peace. He died without his purpose fulfilled, but his spirit lives on in the Grimoire.  His name is the Vagabond.

A thousand years later Kara finds the book– or does it find Kara? A Lichgate or magical portal drops the college-aged human into Ourea in a wooded kingdom, and tells her she must be the new Vagabond. Her life will never be the same. For one, she faces enemies.

Kara journeys to find three different races, many kingdoms with their own spectacular sights, a wide range of magical skills, and an amazing Grimoire with the answers to every question she asks.

 She faces a gamut of physical challenges throughout the book as well as her own internal drama. The sad fate of her family haunts her. Spunky Kara faces her fears and ignorance in the process of becoming a real Vagabond.  A magical prince named Braedan comes along as her guide.

In some areas it seems like a combination between Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Sabriel by Garth Nix, and The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende. 

The landscape on the other side was blurred and bright: a stark contrast to the heavy green glow of the forest, where only freckled rays of sunlight could break through the leaves. She narrowed her eyes as she got closer to the gazebo, but it was impossible to distinguish anything more than colors and rough shapes through the sun’s sharp glare. A plank of wood framed with odd carvings had been nailed to the space above the entrance, and she squinted in an effort to read the dull cuts and make out the word: Lichgate.

(S. M. Boyce, location 102, Kindle version)

This book has great story elements, but I have mixed feelings about Lichgates. I don’t usually read young adult books–my opinion is biased. I only read YA fantasy these days rarely, and it’s usually the kind that make movies. I devoured Twilight and Hunger Games. My favorites are always going to be the ones from my past like Tamora Pierce or Garth Nix.  WAYYY Picky.

Let me start off to say that as a writer of fantasy myself, there is a special place in my heart for worldbuilding. Those are all the little detail that make fantasy special. S. M. Boyce, author of Lichgates put a lot of thought into the creation of the world.

There are both original magical species as well as kingdoms of people all having their own characteristics. No run of the mill vampires, zombies, etc. to be found in this book. There is a lot of good material here–lots of action, great sights, drama, conflict…

However, there are some things that troubled me as I read. First off, I found the editing to be uneven. I read no mistakes in spelling and punctuation, but an editor should have gone through several chapters again for style. Some chapters went by without issue. Generally, I am a quick reader, but awkward sentences with too many clauses often bogged me down. This may not bother the average reader, but it definitely bothered me.

My second major issue with the book has to do with the bounds of magic. The Grimoire and Kara’s buddy Braedan are too powerful. Kara doesn’t hold her own. You can trust me or read on for spoilers.

***SPOILER ****

The Grimoire can be opened at any time to provide answers, a map, or a magic spell. It can even house creatures who can pop in and out whenever you need a ride or a stable.

 The male lead, Braeden, can transform, heal himself, do a billion spells and can even become more powerful like Hulk when he gets angry. A certain sword or poison can affect him, and he has to do anything his Dad says, but otherwise there don’t seem to be limits to his magical power. The high majority of the time, Braedan is unbeatable.

There are no limits to the ways a handy Grimoire can help you on the road. In a real pinch maybe there’s a magical creature with an unexpected power to get you out. It seems to me like the story has too many surprise solutions to any kind of problem to be truly exciting. It’s just a matter of getting a minute to ask the Grimoire or for Braeden to swoop in and save the day. Aside from bringing back the dead, magic seems boundless. It’s not too late for rules of magic or a limitation to be revealed in the second book, though.

The Grimoire: Lichgates (a young adult epic fantasy adventure) (The Grimoire Trilogy)

SM Boyce’s Website

See The Grimoire Encyclopedia

Received Lichgates in exchange for a review

So. What’s the ratio of your follows to the people who follow you? Are you following more than follow you back? In the world of twitter this is a bad thing. To get a high Klout score you’ll need to turn it the other way around or at least be about equal. And hey that’s not so bad right?

http://who.unfollowed.me/

People are in several different groups:

People you think look cool— send them a message and talk to them

People in your industry— retweet an interesting or relevant post. Or create a list and add them to it, often they may not have noticed your follow. I love being added to “writer” lists!

People too good to be your friend— famous people, companies. Do you really need to follow? If you love their tweets keep them, but if you don’t read them anyway and they follow 300/15,000 just dump them.

People who are never on twitter— did they last post two seasons ago? Might as well dump them they aren’t reading or responding anyway.

Tips:

1. Break the task into chunks. Don’t try to tweet to 300 people in one day. http://who.unfollowed.me/ is a site that for free will give you a list of 100 people. Try going through part or all of that list and give people a few days to get back. When you come back to keep working on your project see if they’ve thanked, responded or followed you. Have they been on since you were there? If yes, drop ’em. If no, are they ever going to read your tweets anyway?

I’ll be generous and give people a week. Then I’ll go back and unfollow any face I recognize. Refresh the page and get a new mixed bag of your unfollowers.

2. Remember that many people see this as fun. Seriously, talking to random cool people? Fun!

3. Make a pact from now on to keep closer tabs on the people you follow. Start off by adding them to a list or tweeting to them and you won’t need to go through hundreds later. Simply following people doesn’t necessarily get a response and most people want to make friends, too.

Have fun!

For those of us writing, creating, playing music, drawing, the process of inspiration is one filled with mystery and uncertainty. It’s a magical process where one moment we are at a complete loss and the next we have that special eureka! moment.

Recently I’ve been playing with an idea that I’ve read about in multiple places– books like Muse Food (Recipes for Creativity), Writing on Both Sides of the Brain: Breakthrough Techniques for People Who Write, and Holly Lisle’s How To Think Sideways Class. The idea is to actually get to know your own personal muse by associating it with a character or image. Then when you need to get creative you can pull this image to the fore front and allow the creative side of your mind to play around with it. With a notebook or your artist tools in front of you, bringing up your muse and perhaps entreating its help can be a surprising way to get through to great ideas.

Dance of Apollo with the Nine Muses

It sounded at first to me like a silly idea, but let’s think about the Ancient Greeks. They did the same thing! They personified the idea of “muse” as a collection of nine inspiring women who ranged in expertise from music to drama to poetry. There was a different face to every art, and these were treated as deities. The populace built shrines for them, and gave them their own springs. So when they needed to write a love poem there was a simple procedure: go to the holy place of Erato, maybe leave an offering or say a prayer, and mill around until you get an idea. Were Shakespeare, Chaucer and Homer in touch with their muses? I don’t know honestly, but entreaties to the muses can be found in their works.

So I see no reason why in a pinch you can’t borrow from the Ancient Greeks. But in the modern age wouldn’t it be great if you had your own personal muse? Someone who matches your style or the style of your current work? The way I think this method works is because it’s playful, it helps to encourage that silly imaginative side of yours to come out and start making things up. Just thinking about your muse should put a smile on your lips or give you a emotional reaction full of fodder for your art.

I’ll start! Like the ancient Greeks, I can’t just choose one. Several muses have come to me over the past few weeks.

Muse 1. Roomful of Unruly Children

If you’ve ever had to watch a group of kids, then you know there is nothing more terribly imaginative. Glance the other direction and they’ll be fighting, grinding gum into the floor, pulling hair and crying. It strikes fear into my heart honestly! But wouldn’t it be nice if you could borrow their creative powers? They sure as hell have a lot of fun, look at the unabashed glee in the picture above. And nothing helps a writing move like conflict conflict conflict! If there is a detail I need to work out, I think I’ll throw it into the kid pit.

Muse 2. Staff Twirling Woman on a Bridge

I don’t have a picture of this one, but to pamper my muse I’m going to pay an artist friend to sketch her out for me. A woman dressed in red and neutral tones stands on a wooden bridge. She guards it with a heavy staff that twirls between her hands so fast it’s a blur. In her hazel eyes you know that no challenger can get past her. She’s a force to contend with.

I admire her strength and discipline–things I need in taking criticism and writing novels with diligence. I wonder if one day she might tell me her story…

Muse 3. Mother Octopus

This last guide of mine has come to me in several scenes of my current work, Line of Isis. I am amazed by octopus, especially the idea that the animals could be enormous and waiting at the bottom of the ocean. I see “Mother Octopus” as an ancient and magical spirit who can transform into other shapes, too. She is quiet but powerful, rich with depth. While the kids deal with the petty stuff, she concerns herself with only things large enough to ensnare in her massive tentacles. (Did you know octopus sometimes carry around coconuts to hide in??)

So that’s my gang. If you’d like to find your own muse, look through magazines or doodle or journal. How does your creativity express itself? Is it fast or slow? Patient or erratic? Jumping up and down or sitting Indian style? Think of what it likes and dislikes, jot down a quick list. Perhaps try a mind map. Try for a bit and then work on your art, do you notice any inspiration? Muses are long term sources of creativity so revisit them and have fun!

See my pinterest of more muse images I’ve collected, or my inspiration board for my mermaid project, Line of Isis.

                   

This short story begins with a break-in. Amanda Kerwood steps into her photography studio to discover her research thrown on the floor, an important file missing, and, most importantly, her computer is gone. On the comp as well as the missing backups, are the final proofs for her upcoming studio show. Catastrophe. And the police aren’t easy to deal with either.

The subject matter of the show? Nude models, specifically, nudes displaying scars from surgeries that include breast tissue donors. Some give their tissue so that others may be beautiful. But what are they left as? Trash.

I thought this mystery was nicely paced for a short story. I did find myself skimming through excessive detail on camera tech. I know its the perspective of a photographer but I’m not that interested in the nitty gritty. But other than that it was a nice story and a very quick read. A little too quick, the ending threw me a little, would’ve liked another clue or two. Definitely deep and worth your time!

I really really appreciate that the author cares for women and for more than just the skin on their chests!

Also check out Thom’s blog, it is edgy and intriguing!

 Trash on Amazon

Thom Simonson’s blog

Dr. Taeya Sanchez doesn’t think much of Rick DeAngelo at first. In fact he disgusts her. She works her ass off to continue to provide treatment to the ill in the only hospital operating in NYC. Since the pandemic H10N1 has mutated and resisted treatment for so long, it’s also one of the last on the East Coast. She fights to save it. He thinks he’s above the rest. He doesn’t bother to wear his uniform and he gets away with it, too. He’s a professional scavenger in the throes of the worst virus America has ever seen.

The New York Public Library has burned. Firetrucks never come since then. People die waiting in the long line outside of the hospital. Mobs loot and kill, burn what is left, while the rich hoard food and lock themselves inside their apartments. And he has the audacity to stare at her tits and insinuate that she’s part of a massive conspiracy to allow the masses to die off.

She’s going to need him though. Her husband, now passed away, always said she had a big mouth. In her efforts to speak against the Hospital Director’s idea of “treating the sick,” she gets herself in bigg trouble and needs a way out of the city. Guess who helps? Landing in a van together is certainly not what either of them would have planned.

I was really amazed by the research that went into this book. I’m not a doctor but I was impressed by Taeya’s medical point of view. She treats patients along her journey and explains the biological virus Korea has spread around the world. Incredible also were survival skills residents displayed after the electricity, water, and reliable food supplies ended.

This book has action, adventure, guns, wounds, science, fiction, a journey around the states, homebrew that’ll knock your socks off, a sack full of weed for trade and even a Biodome. I gave this a 4.5 for being nearly perfect.

H10N1 on Amazon

The Forever Girl has been on my to do read list for a month or so. I have about a million on there, so when something jumps out and says buy me buy me nowww!! It means something. I came across the book on a book blog, and was attracted to the cover and the trailer, which were very well produced. The main character, in an dramatic black outfit, had pretty cool style. I also was drawn to the main character Sophia, who in the free sample I read, turned out to be waitress ( a job I’ve just ended), Wiccan ( a spirituality that I am), and feisty when pressured to convert by random Christians (can relate). I didn’t know much about what would happen next, but it sure had a good start.

I had no idea what came next and so I am loath to ruin it for you. Needless to say, if you like magic, rituals, creative configurations of superhuman species, fire, history, and the like, you will like this book. Some of these themes are in my own manuscript, too, which was a cool surprise. I thought the writing was tight, the characters well thought out, the settings described wonderfully. Throughout the novel, sprinklings of elegant narrative grace the page, the moon above was stitched in the sky, a lusty mans ‘interest’ pressed against Sophia’s thigh. Yes, tell me more beautiful things please. Looking forward to book two!

THE FOREVER GIRL (an Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance Novel of the Occult) (Forever Girl Series #1) on Amazon

Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles series follows ex-lawyer and amateur sleuth China, who also happens to be an herbalist. The series has followed China through now twenty novels of murder mystery interwoven with excerpts from herbal books, recipes, and facts thrown into the mix. I love herbs, and so I love these books which keep me turning pages like a mad woman. You will tear through them in no time. I am in the middle of a six day work week myself, and finished the book by day four.

This book is a bit different from the others I have read in this series. In what is probably the beginning of a new pattern, Susan also writes from the perspective of Police Chief Shiela Dawson, known to China as “Tough Cookie.” I really enjoy Shiela’s character, and I think her by-the-book approach is a needed balance to China’s habits of investigation the old fashion way– by eavesdropping, trespassing, and generally getting her nose into other people’s business. Not that I don’t love her for it! Shiela gets a look that China has no access to in the police department, and other cases which may be related (hint hint), while China has the pulse of community gossip and the tack of a sharp ex-lawyer willing to take a few risks.

This book was an easy and delicious read. I enjoyed the new perspective of Shiela and the way it was alternated with China. I loved the theme of Cat’s Claw, and the occasional deep moments of both Shiela and China when it came to the thoughts on working a job where you have to get used to death and being outnumbered by men, the relationship between man and the wild, as well as an awareness through China’s eyes of how humans affect their environment with the growth of real estate into the Texas Hill Country.

Mmmm, yummy can’t wait for the next. In the meantime, I’ll be rereading the other nineteen in the series.

Cat’s Claw on Amazon

If you like puzzles or thrillers also check out my review for The Voynich Cypher